IRS Expands Its Troubles

The inspector general for the Social Security Administration (SSA) recently published a report revealing that the IRS routinely neglects to penalize employers who file W-2s with mismatched names and Social Security numbers. In effect, this has “hindered” the SSA’s attempts to prevent “unauthorized noncitizens” (illegal aliens) from using fake or stolen Social Security numbers to obtain tax refunds. “Furthermore,” said the report, “a senior employment tax official at the IRS acknowledged that unauthorized noncitizens accounted for a high percentage of inaccurate wage reporting.” This isn’t surprising, given that the IRS has issued an astounding $14 billion in refundable tax credits to illegals.

In other IRS news, National Review’s Eliana Johnson reports, “The second in command at the Internal Revenue Service, Beth Tucker, will retire at the end of September.” As we noted in July, Tucker is one of the IRS employees who “commutes” to DC from her Texas home at obscene cost. Travel policy has since been changed. Baby steps.

Finally, Republicans on Capitol Hill are still working on the investigation into IRS targeting of Barack Obama’s political opponents in the lead-up to the 2012 election. Lois “Plead the Fifth” Lerner, the IRS official at the center of the scandal, remains on vacation since her May non-testimony, though Republicans still hope to compel her testimony.

"[A] wise and frugal government ... shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government." —Thomas Jefferson (1801)

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